Subscribe to this blog

Follow by Email

Search This Blog

Pages

Podcast

The Empathy Factor Podcast
Diving into pop culture, celebrity, television, and movies, these bite sized episodes ask you to question the world around you and offer insight into parts of our world we don't often think about. Most topics revolve around the central question, "What if that was me?"
Connecting, questioning, and dissecting our world and media from the teenage point of view is at The Empathy Factor's core.
And then there's the Riverdale recaps.

I'm super excited about this project, and I'm happy to share it with all of you. Expect new episodes on a variety of topics to be available every Tuesday starting 8/27. I'm working on getting this distributed as widely as possible, but, at the moment, it is somewhat complicated to get listed everywhere. Updates will be provided on this page towards the bottom with links. For now, if you'd like to listen, you can always find the new episodes as well as transcripts on the show's website: empathyfactor.simplecast.com.
Make sure to follow on Instagram @empathyfactorpod for updates and you can reach me about the podcast at empathyfactorpod@gmail.com.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dumplin' by Julie Murphy (375 pages)Overview: Willowdean "Dumplin'" is fat. It's something that she's come to accept about herself even after years of fad diets enforced by her mother and bullying at school. Aunt Lucy certainly helped with her self acceptance, and in cultivating her love of Dolly Parton, but Will is left rudderless after Lucy has a sudden heart attack. To reclaim a bit of confidence she'd lost, Will signs up for the Clover City Pageant. Though she's not the typical beauty queen, Will and her group of friends get to put their own stamp on her mother's beloved pageant. Overall: 4 Characters: 4 I like Willowdean. She lives in the place most of us do on the fine line between insecure and confident. Murphy does a great job building a crew of characters around Willowdean. It was fun to revisit the cast after I'd read Puddin', Murphy's forthcoming companion novel.

This year's best of 2018 list has tons of new categories to fit all of the amazing books I read this year. I've had the chance to read so many advanced books and recent releases, so most of what I read were books that came out in 2018. I mostly choose contemporary, so I've started with my favorite debut as well as the best books in other genres I've ventured into. After that, I have smaller categories in the contemporary genre. I hope you find new books to love and give to your friends and family for the holidays. If you're interested in learning more about the books on the list, click their titles to go to my reviews. Let me know if these are some of your favorites in the comments, and tell me your favorite books!Best In Genre
Top Debut Nothing Left To Burn by Heather EzellNothing Left To Burn gave me the craziest book hangover. I was so immersed in the story, and I couldn't stop reading to do anything that I actually needed to be doing. There is a toxic relat…

Have a Little Faith In Me by Sonia HartlOverview: CeCe and Paul have no reason being at Jesus camp. Paul gave up his faith years ago when his paster father abandoned his mother, and CeCe never really believed to start with. They're not there to find their faith again, though. CeCe is on a secret mission to win back her born again boyfriend who dumped her after having sex. Whether it's love or just proving something to herself, CeCe is determined to get Ethan back, even if that means fake dating her best friend, Paul, and listening to hours of sermons. While CeCe shakes the camp up, she starts to shake up some ideas of her own about what happened with her and Ethan. Overall: 5Characters: 5 I love CeCe. She's bold, unflinching, bright, and impulsive. Unafraid to be quiet about her own beliefs she challenges a lot of the misogynistic happenings at the camp and vocally questions why girls are left to shoulder the responsibility for "tempting" boys by not being modes…

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (306 pages) Buy At Your Local Bookstore*Overview: It's just one elevator ride. Just one elevator ride to the rest of Will's life. Eight floors takes so long when you're headed to kill someone. Even in revenge. Even for justice. Even when your brother was just murdered. It's even longer when every stop brings someone who's left your life back in. There's so much to learn before Will hits the lobby. Overall: 4 Characters: 4 Because of the atmosphere and the point of the story, we don't get super into the characters. They each represent a stop on a horrible cycle. It starts with Buck, Will's older brother, Shawn's, older brother figure. When Buck got killed, Shawn had to avenge his death, which got him killed. He also meets his Uncle Mark, an aspiring filmmaker who's death lead to Will's father's death because of the Rules. Each character doesn't exist to explore themselves or have their own motives- they…

What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera (448 pages)Overview: Ben and Arthur meet at the post office during a flashmob. Well, Arthur followed Ben into the post office because he thought he was and, and, just as they started talking, in true form with Arthur's New York fantasy, a flash mob erupted. When the boys and split up, Arthur loses his chance at connecting with Ben, but when he can't stop thinking about him, he explores ways to reconnect even in a city of a million empty faces like New York. Even if they can find each other, with Arthur going back to Georgia at the end of the summer, will it even be worth it? Overall: 4/5Characters: 4.5 I'm not sure what to say about the characters. I liked them enough, but I didn't feel any real attachment to any of them. I liked the cast of friends, but they all lacked a certain weight that would give them a stronger sense of reality. My favorite relationship in the book was the friendship between Dylan and Ben.…

Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett (417 pages)Overview: Glamping should not include getting stranded in the middle of the woods with your ex-best friend. But life doesn't always go as it's supposed to. When Zorie agrees to go with her friend Regan and her crew on a summer camping trip, she doesn't know Lennon will be there, and she's certainly not expecting the group to abandon the two of them in the middle of the California wilderness, forced to complete a multi day track back to civilization. It turns out, though, that an adventure in the woods might be just what they need. Overall: 4.5Characters: 5 I thought that all of the characters, including the adults, were given dimension. I loved the parental dynamic between Lennon and his moms as well as Zorie's relationship with her step mom who never considered Zorie less than her own daughter.
Lennon and Zorie are also awesome characters. Zorie has to battle her intense anxiety and relinquish control while she's stuck in…

Spin by Lamar Giles (387 pages)Overview: Fuse and Kya have lost their best friend. #ParSecNation lost their leader, and the Dark Nation has decided to do something about it, even if it means terrorizing those who were closest of her. DJ Paris Secord, or ParSec was murdered at a warehouse she planned to throw a party in. Fuse and Kya found her when they'd come to make amends for different issues they'd rather the public, or the cops, not know about. But they both want to see Paris's killer caught, so they might have to overcome their differences and work together. Overall: 4.5Characters: 5 Fuse, Paris, and Kya all get a turn to narrate the story which I enjoyed. They each have their own voices and personalities that really shine through and bring a different angle to the same storyline.
Fuse is rich. Her dad runs a successful marketing company, and she shifted what she learned from him to making Paris's music and brand famous. She helped Paris climb the ranks, but, at t…

Unpregnant by Jenni Hendriks and Ted CaplanOverview: Veronica is headed to Brown, she's valedictorian. High school is basically over for her, but the two lines on the pregnancy test ring a whole new kind of problem. As she makes the earth shattering discovery, her ex-best friend Bailey is in the bathroom too. When Veronica realizes that she'll have to travel thousands of miles to get an abortion, Bailey and Veronica embark on an epic road trip to safeguard Veronica's future. Overall: 3.5Characters: 3.5 All the characters are nice enough, but they're not very developed or extended beyond their basic stereotypes. Veronica is the perfect Christian girl with a wonderful future ahead of her that winds up in a bad situation. Bailey is the dumped best friend who's "scary" and has tons of rumors swirling about her. Veronica comes to realize that keeping up appearances isn't everything and Bailey gets a friend (I guess?).
Then there's Kevin who apparently …

Goodbye, Perfect by Sara Barnard (January 29)Overview: Eden has always been the irresponsible one with poor grades, a loud mouth, and a general air of irresponsibility, but it's her friend Bonnie that takes over the headlines of every major news station in the UK. Bonnie disappears with her ,music teacher and parent boyfriend, Jack Cohen, better known to everyone at Kett as Mr. Cohen. Eden can't believe that a friend would do this, but, suddenly, when she gets a WhatsApp message from Bonnie, she's clued in to their runaway mission. Pressured by her family, Bonnie's, and the cops, Eden refuses to tell them what they know because she made a promise to her best friend. Overall: 3.5 Characters: 3 Okay, I guess I can see some of the thinking behind these characters, but it wasn't articulated very well. Eden refuses to tell on her friend even though she knows how wrong and serious the situation is. I can see making a promise and being hesitant, but I can't see a sixt…

Call It What You Want by Brigid Kemmerer (June 25)TW: suicide attempt discussedOverview: Rob's father robbed the town. He lost everyone's money at his financial planning company. He took their money to make himself rich. Then he got caught and attempted suicide but survived in a somewhat vegetated state. Now Rob is a social pariah at school, and he has to take care of his dad who can't even acknowledge his presence. Maegan is still fighting the dirty looks from last year when her cheating got everyone's SAT scores cancelled, but, at least she still has her best friend and a sister. But then her sister comes home from college pregnant, and her house dissolves into a mess of anger and confusion. When a calculus project brings them together, they find that their complicated lives might not be something they have to face alone. Overall: 4 Characters: 4 I really enjoyed the characters. Rob is sweet, understanding, respectful, and confused. I loved reading about him, and esp…